Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 12:16
but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites regarding settlement practices as they prepare to inhabit the promised land. He establishes regulations for slaughter and consumption that apply both inside and outside the central sanctuary.
The words — The Hebrew רַק (rak) translates literally as "only," introducing a strict limitation. The verb תִשְׁפְּכֶנּוּ (tish.pe.Khe./nu) means "you will pour it out," specifying the required disposal method.
The thread — This prohibition recurs in Genesis 9:4, Deuteronomy 15:23, and Deuteronomy 12:23. Each passage reiterates that blood represents life and must never be consumed with meat.
Why it lands — The text commands a physical separation between consumption and disposal by forbidding the eating of blood. It requires readers to treat slaughtered animals with ritual restraint by draining the blood onto the earth.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water.
Cross-references
- Genesis 9:4 But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.
- Deuteronomy 15:23 But you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.
- Deuteronomy 12:23 Only be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.
- Acts 15:29 You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.
- Leviticus 7:26 You must not eat the blood of any bird or animal in any of your dwellings.
- Leviticus 17:10 If anyone from the house of Israel or a foreigner living among them eats any blood, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from among his people.
- 1 Timothy 4:4 For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected,